By Steve and Zack

The Extremely Mature Horrors of D&D’s Book of Vile Darkness

Are you ready to get extremely MATURE? The Book of Vile Darkness is the mascara-smeared goth face of Dungeons & Dragons. This is Glenn Danzig and his shelf of werewolf books and erotic comics. Released just in time for Halloween, 2002, the book seemed to embrace all of the criticisms leveled against past editions of…

The Bad Cyberpunk Art of Atlas Games’ Cyberpunk 2020 Books

Cyberpunk 2020, the deadly and neon-washed RPG from publisher R. Talsorian, was always a niche gaming system. It had its heyday in the early nineties and has spent the last 25 years dwindling in popularity. Despite its relatively minor role in the pantheon of roleplaying games, it maintains a devoted following and managed to attract…

Collectible Card Garbage: The Austin Powers Game

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me was released in 1999 to minimal acclaim, but enough box-office that a few years later it merited another sequel. It also evidently merited a collectible card game. Magic: The Gathering and Austin Powers were both at the height of their respective popularity that year. That might explain why…

Rogue Trader (2009): The Emperor’s Undiminished Enthusiasm

Fantasy Flight Games followed up 2008’s Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy RPG with the very, very slightly more light-hearted Rogue Trader in 2009. This game allowed players to take on the role of a titular rogue trader and their crew of dark future dorks. They could go trading, exploring, and conquering space in cooperation with the…

Magic: The Gathering’s “Legends” (1994)

When it was released in 1994, Legends was a capital letters Big Deal. Legends was the first Magic: The Gathering series to be released in 15-card booster packs and the first 300+ card “full” set rather than the shorter sets like Antiquities and Arabian Nights. It also introduced the multi-colored Legends cards and mechanics like…

Heroes Unlimited: Democracy Dies in Dankness

When last we left our intrepid hero, the unpleasantly-named Andy “School Prayering Mantis” Albright was recruited to the American superhero organization Sentinels of Liberty and Justice, but was sidelined for being too violent and murdering all villains with a sword. When his superhero friends ran into trouble, Mantis traveled to Germany in search of missing…

Heroes Unlimited: School Prayering Mantis Vs. Merkill

Soar into the world of spandex, capes, and USA being number one in this patriotic play session of Palladium’s Heroes Unlimited. Zack’s mutant hero, School Prayering Mantis, joins the Sentinels of Liberty and Justice, a team of super heroes sponsored by the US government. The Sentinels are summoned to the White House and given a…